All set to create chess record

In what could be a remarkable feat of mental prowess, chess prodigy Raghav Srivathsav will attempt to establish five new world marks for the Limca Book of Records at the Novotel Hotel, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on Saturday at 4.30 p.m.

At a press conference here on Tuesday, his father Shyam Sundar, a former journalist, said that in round one, a panel comprising Grand Masters Pravin Thipsay, Sriram Jha and S. Vijayalakshmi besides Adjudicator V.V.R. Murthy, Assistant Editor, Limca Book of Records, would pick one of 24 selected games played by world champions Vishwanathan Anand, Paul Morphy, Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and Alexander Alekhine. Shyam's 12-year-old son will then reel off from memory all the moves of that chosen encounter from opening to end.

For the next four rounds, Raghav will be blind-folded. The sixth standard student of Glendale Academy will then play five from the remaining 23 games from start to finish.

In round three, the chess whiz kid with an ELO rating of 1622, will play the same games backwards, from conclusion to commencement.

In phase four, the 2008 Colombo Asian School chess silver-medallist will play an opponent, based on oral rendition of his rival's moves, from opening to end. In the sign-off session, he will play both his own and his adversary's moves, but in reverse. Sponsoring him in the assault on what will be an astounding achievement is the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL), whose CEO P. Sripathy says this will be another achievement for the facility, ranked among the top five in the world and numero uno for those handling upto 15 million passengers a year.

Penchant

Sundar said his son's astonishing penchant to play things backwards began when spelling key as ‘yek' as a six-year-old. Also addressing the conference were Subhash Korala, Associate Vice President, GHIAL and Narsimuloo Mangalpally, Raghav's uncle.

Slideshow

Traffic got disrupted and main thoroughfares turned into canals due to a sudden unseasonal downpour in Hyderabad on Monday afternoon. The Hindu lensman Mohammed Yousuf captures the travails of commuters.